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Dirty Heads Ready New Album After Surprise Hit 'Lay Me Down'

Though Dirty Heads' debut album, 2008's "Any Port in a Storm," is an enjoying an extended life thanks to the added-on single "Lay Me Down," the southern California quintet is ready to focus on its follow-up.

"There's a bunch of new songs, a bunch of new ideas," frontman Dustin "Duddy" Bushnell tells Billboard.com. "We're definitely excited for some new music." Bushnell says the group has "probably got a solid 15 songs and a couple more ideas just in the making." And he and his bandmates anticipate a markedly different experience than "Any Port in a Storm."

"That first album was our first time ever going in a studio with all the toys that we wanted to play with and everything," he recalls. "We just did anything and everything we wanted, and it was super eclectic, like from 'Hip Hop Misfits' to 'Chelsea.' This next album we'll be more zoned-in. It'll have more direction."

Dirty Heads have been playing a few of the new songs live, including "We Will Rise" and another tentatively titled "On My Way." "They're going over really well," Bushnell says, "and it's cool to do that. We're learning more about them as we play them live, and we'll apply that when we go into the studio."

"Lay Me Down," in fact, was intended to be part of that next album after the group wrote it with Sublime's Rome Ramirez during a backyard barbecue at Bushnell's house.

"Then our manager went to have a meeting with our label for a completely different song," Bushnell says. "His assistant put ('Lay Me Down') on the CD by accident, and when the label heard it they were like, 'That song's awesome! We'll start working it today!' so we had to get it out as soon as possible. It's pretty funny; we had a whole album that we did with producers and a label and all that stuff, and one of those songs were hitting. The one song that hit had nothing to do with the album; it was recorded in my back yard, just messing around, no producers or anything, recorded in one day -- and it hits!"

Dirty Heads have North American tour dates booked through early May and have also announced an appearance at the Boonstock festival on July 2 in Gibbons, Alberta.